Postal workers fight privatization

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The insurgent new leadership of the American Post­ al Workers Union (APWU) has begun a nationally co­ ordinated campaign to fight the accelerated privatiza­ tion and dismantling of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

The APWU announcement came on the heels of a union-busting deal between Postmaster General Pat­ rick Donahoe and Staples stores in October. A pilot program that established non-union post office ser­ vices in 82 Staples stores will now be expanded to all of its 1500 Staples outlets.

What’s more, a private firm called “Goin’ Postal” has just signed a deal with USPS to set up shop in 2000 Walmart department stores with non-union labor. It will offer not just USPS services but also UPS, DHL, Fed-X, and other postal services.

In 2006, legislators of both parties sponsored and passed by voice vote a bill that mandated the prefunding of postal worker pensions 75 years into the future—requiring a $5.5 billion per year investment for workers not even born! The poison pill legislation sought to financially cripple the USPS and make it appear that the public service and its union are eco­ nomically unviable. No other government agency or company must do this.

In 2013, a so-called “White Paper” and a subsequent corporate-backed study both recommended the priva­ tization of all postal services except delivery. New York activist John Dennie, a retired postal worker, calls the bosses’ onslaught “privatization on steroids.”

The USPS bosses like Donahoe and the corporate bloodsucker class have their eyes fixed on destroying the diverse 500,000-strong unionized postal work­ force, the second largest workforce in the U.S. next to Walmart. They aim to rob what they can of the esti­ mated $110 billion in postal resources and rip off its customer base—that is, all of us!

APWU President Mark Dimondstein called Postmas­ ter Donahoe “Wall Street’s Trojan Horse, the privatizer from within.” The APWU’s slogan is, “The U.S. Mail is not for Sale!” APWU represents some 196,000 main­ tenance workers, truck drivers, and clerks, whose jobs include numerous activities from processing mail to selling stamps (see APWU.org).

A National Day of Action was called for Nov. 14 by all ties, some of which have been named “National Landmarks” for their architectural beauty or for the artworks that they contain, has continued at an accelerated pace since 2009. According to www. Saveourpostoffice.org, it adds up to about $546 mil­ lion in revenue.

Behind the corporate privatization drive are forces like the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, created in 2004 as the stealthy name for the large mailer association whose industry is estimated at $1 trillion. Another player is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), funded by donors like the ultra-conservative Koch brothers.

Benefitting from the corporate raid is CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate broker and sole manager of all USPS property sales. The chairman of CBRE is Richard Blum, husband of California’s power­ ful U.S. Senator, Democrat Diane Feinstein.

In 1971, President Nixon, under the Postal Reorga­ nization Act, changed the USPS into a governmentowned “public corporation,” rather than being en­ tirely owned by the government and responsible to voters. The changes were based on recommendations of a commission established by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. Since the early 1980’s the USPS has not received a penny in government funding.

Socialists say to the corporate raiders, “Keep your hands off our Post Office!” Keep postal work union! As the APWU says, “The U.S. mail is not for sale” n CORRECTION: A version of this article was scheduled to appear in the November 2014 edition of Socialist Ac­ tion. By mistake, we published an article on the postal service that had already appeared in our paper a year earlier, in November 2013. We apologize for the error.